Pathstomper Episode 2
by FantasyKaiju
Summary: Still following the artifact, the team stumbles across a haunted prison.


Pathstomper

This is a non-profit fan-based parody. Ultraman and other various Ultra monsters are property of Tsuburaya Productions. Background, other monsters, and story elements are owned/inspired by Paizo Publishing. Support the official releases.

Episode 2

Scene opens to two guys, who appear to be in their mid-20's, at a table in what appears to be a living room/den. "So chief, you know since Jay moved, he left us his lucky dice?" asks a bearded gentleman with glasses whose decked out in a flannel button shirt and a non-descript game related t-shirt. The other short-haired man who is wearing black, horn-rim glasses and a t-shirt with the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man on it responds, "Really?" The first guy nods and hands him a green twenty-sided die. "Use this," he says, "It'll be interesting knowing how his dice rolled." The second one looks at him quizzically, "Okay so this is some superstition that makes you think if I roll this, it's going to turn up some high number and make it difficult to roll against my monsters?" "Yes," responds the first guy again. The scene fades as the second guy, the Game Master stares at the die and smiles.

The scene opens to a cobble stone road going up a small hill with an overcast sky. "Here we are…**again**," narrates Silver Fang as he climbs up this hill with the rest of his group. "Been eight days since we left the scene of our first little adventure at the Boar's Hunt. We decided to rest for a day after the troll hunt, and then we set off. We got lost early on and lost a day, but after that we followed a road east and got to the Varisian/Ustalavian border after about four more days. That wasn't so bad, the border on each side had its guards and we explained that we were doing a quest for the Church of Apsu and they let us pass. They did question King Joe a bit on the Ustalavian side, but that's probably because he's a technic. Which is also surprising since Ustalav has invasions from hobgoblinoids, various forms of undead, etc., they usually are pretty afraid of outsiders. Well, then it took another two days to get here," he narrates as the group gets to the top of this hill covered with yellowing grass. What it overlooks is a cemetery and a road taking them into the back entrance of the town of Harrowstone. Before going on Ansmaro does utter, "That's awfully ghastly."

As they walk toward the cemetery Vrondi Piscine asks Silver Fang, "Ever heard of Harrowstone before?" "Some prison town right?" he asks back with a snort. "Right. I heard of this place while studying in Magnimar. It was founded about 170 years ago as a major prison and the town sprang up around it. Eventually about 60 years ago, there was a massive prison riot that caused the prison to burn-killing a majority of the inmates and staff," Vrondi says while titling his head downward. Silver Fang looks at him with surprise, "Wow. Didn't know you knew that much of the area!" "I didn't, but when we leveled up I took a feat that allowed me two new skills to allocate points into," Vrondi explains with great gusto. Silver Fang looks at him and the scene freezes.

Silver Fang walks out in front of the frozen frame and starts off, "If you haven't guessed, we are Role Playing Game characters. When we gain a certain amount of experience, we level up. This means we gain new powers, feats, and depending on our class-get new tricks. Because of some weird shark-jumpin' bullcrap, we were bumped up to Lvl. 5 each." He looks off screen and barks, "So what did you get, Vrondi?" He answers by shouting back while still offscreen, "A skill feat that gave me knowledge in local history and basic nature knowledge. Oh and some new spells!" Silver Fang nods, "I now have the feat, "Cleave", so if I hit a target I can strike another in close range. I now can cast minor spells too and can channel positive energy to disrupt the undead." Ansmaro walks out and smiles," You know what I got, right?" Silver Fang scowls and responds in a sarcastic tone, "No, but I bet you're going to tell me and the audience anyways, right?" "That's right! I got the feat "Rapid Reload" for my pistol. I got the new rogue talent "Offensive Defense", so things I sneak attacked have a harder time to hit me. Lastly I have Uncanny Dodge that helps me intuitively detect danger and try to dodge it," Ansmaro replies with a big smile on his face. "Also, remember that goblinoid chieftain's amulet? I had it sewn into my plate-reinforced cloth armor so I got +1 to both my Strength and Constitution, not bad eh?" he snarkingly says. King Joe off-camera says in his usual autotuned tone, "I took the feat, "Improved Unarmed Strike", for personal protection and have discovered the Crypt Breaker alchemist ability "Trap Spotter" so I can help detect traps." "And that leaves…"Silver Fang trails off and facepalms when Bonesmasher's, head bursts through and shatters part of the screen behind them. "Bonesmasher took "Improved Unarmed Strike "too! I got the rage power, "Powerful Blow" too," he says with a grin that crosses his face, while Silver Fang rubs his own forehead with embarrassment. Silver Fang clears his throat and then continues, "Also we got one bonus point to a stat of our choosing. I picked a +1 in Intelligence so now I'm at 16. King Joe has +1 in Dexterity so now he's at 11. Vrondi took +1 to Constitution so now he's at 15. Bonesmasher took +1 to Strength, so he's at 23." "And I took a +1 to Con as well so I'd be at 12, but really 13 due to magical influence," Ansmaro says with a smile and darts a snide look at Silver Fang. "Hopefully this adventure we can really show off what we can do," Silver Fang says with pride as the scene returns to normal and they set off through the cemetery.

The group finally gets to the gate that is manned by two town constables that seem to be both Guts with basic chain mail and helmets. "Welcome to Harrowstone," one begins and the other interjects, "What business do you have? Not many strangers come here." They both look at the group with scrutiny. Silver Fang stands forth, "Good people of Harrowstone, this group is under my personal purview. I am on a mission from the Church of Apsu to acquire information on a stolen artifact. May we rest in your town?" he asks in a very cordial tone. The Guts look at each other, whisper to each other for a few moments, and agree at the same time, "Yes. If it is for your gods, yes you may." One of them even nods, "We need the business. Our town only has 285 people, so please come in and spend." Silver Fang doesn't know how to respond to that and has a very comical look on his face, but then asks, "So have there been any other strangers through here as of recent?" The Guts on the left nods, "Just one in a cloak. Not sure who he was, but he went into the crafting district and bought a lot of alchemical and magic supplies five days ago." The Guts on the right looks at the other, "Well, also, starting five days ago there were strange lights up near Ravengro Prison's Ruins." He looks toward his feet, "Also since then, ghost lights have flickering on and off more frequently than usual up there at night and also the wind seems like its rasping with some kind of voice. It's a bad omen." "So that place is haunted?" Ansmaro asks quizzically, looking at the ruin on a hill overlooking the town to the east. They both respond with a bit of fear in their voices, "Yes! When Ravengro burned down, it trapped so many within its walls. So you can imagine what sort of restless souls are inside it." "And what of the stranger?" questions King Joe in his usual mechanized voice, surprising both of the Guts. "Ummm… we think he's still in the town possibly, or left at night," responds the bird-like creature on the left that eyes King Joe oddly. Ansmaro asks in a very prying tone, "What did he/she look like?" "I'm not sure, "says the Guts on the left side again, "It slips my mind like he was a mere whisp in my mind." " Silver Fang shrugs, "Well let's go. We need to find a place to stay anyway. Any suggestions?" The Guts on the right nods, "Two choices: The Weltway Pub and Board, however they have only eight rooms and are kind of pricey or The Broken Tusk Inn. That place is owned by a Shugaron and has low to medium to high-end rooms." Silver Fang's left eye begins to twitch, "A Shugaron?" The Guts nod in unison. With that, once again the Silvergon facepalms and the gates to the town open.

A montage begins of Silvergon questioning a few other Guts in front of a magic store, while Vrondi buys some bags of magical items from someone out of frame. Ansmaro, for a few moments, is seen next buying gun powder and bullets from a Degunja with an eye patch in a room filled with firearms. King Joe is in the next frame eyeing an alchemy supply store with a few of the citizenry looking at him as an oddity. Bonesmasher, in the next frame, is at a food cart operated by a Baltan and devours everything in said food cart. The Baltan backs up in fear of his slavering maw and backs up in an energetic shudder. Another scene frame finally shows Silver Fang and company right in front of The Broken Tusk Inn with Bonesmasher still chewing on a thick bone.

The next scene has the group inside the lobby of the inn. Its blue walls look old with wear and the front desk is littered with papers beside the bell to signal the attendant. Silver Fang rings the bell and a Shugaron pops up from behind the counter. "I be Umpa!" the Shugaron happily cries in a high-pitched tone. "You don't have family in Varisia by any chance?" questions Ansmaro in curiousness. The Shugaron nods, "Yes I have a sister named Onpa that owns an inn there." "That was a sister?" Vrondi quietly asks under his breath, while Umpa doesn't notice. "Well anyways, we're here to rent five rooms. I already worked it out with my group. I'll take a standard room, so will Vrondi, and King Joe. Bonesmasher will take a loft in the barn," Silver Fang says and the Red King nods behind him with a smile. Ansmaro forces himself into the front, speaks with a charming tone, and bows while taking his hat off, "And I, good Shugaron, will pay the 2 gold pieces for the deluxe suite to myself." The Shugaron gives a wide smile and takes their various monies and hands them each keys, except Bonesmasher who he then says, "I'll show you to your pig pen…eeerrr…I mean loft!" The scene fades as the Shugaron takes the barbaric kaiju by the hand and the rest of the group migrates to their rooms.

The next scene opens to later that night, Silver Fang, King Joe, and Vrondi Piscine are at a table inside the pub area of the inn. "Sounds like a magic masking spell," says Vrondi with great conviction before he sips his tea. Silver Fang nods and King Joe autotunes away, "No one remembers what exactly this stranger looked like. So it makes perfect sense." Silver Fang takes a sip of what appears to be a chowder of some sort and inquires, "So what did our scouring for clues lead to?" Vrondi pipes up, "That said mystery man was once again in the crafters district today earlier in the morning. Also he was buying magical supplies." "What sort and for what!?" questions Silver Fang vehemently. King Joe shrugs, "Just various odds and ends," he faces Vrondi then, "Right?" Vrondi nods, "Too diverse and just too much loose product to know what he or she is up to." King Joe nods back, "Tomorrow, we're going to comb the crafter's district again for clues." Silver Fang slurps down his chowder and says calmly, "That's all well and good, but I'm going up to the ruins of Ravengro." Vrondi seems shocked (probably not grasping the irony of this statement) and proceeds to wave his arms, "You really are going up there tomorrow?" He scrapes up what's left of his chowder and shovels it into his mouth before saying, "Of course! This stranger has triggered supernatural activity in those ruins. It's my job as a templar to deal with it." King Joe then hands Silver Fang a bottle that he grabs from his chest compartment. "What's this?" Silver Fang asks after taking the little bottle full of blue-black fluid and looking at it with great curiosity. "Cryptbreaker's Draught. It's a fluid you drink to gain perception boosts. Works great for dungeoneering," the technic says to the templar. Silver Fang gives a simple "Thanks," and stretches his arms out with a big yawn, "I'm going to hit the hay. Talk to you two tomorrow when I'm back." He gets up and the scene fades away.

A white screen with big green, bold letters that read, "MONSTER FACTS" appears on the screen as a moderately-sized, muscular humanoid with charcoal gray skin and pointy, exaggerated ears walks on camera. Above it appears the heading "HOBGOBLINOID" in big, red letters. The creature looks around and Ansmaro begins to narrate in his usual, charismatic tone of voice, "Hobgoblinoids are a lawful evil race that live in strict, militaristic tyrannies. Yeah sucks huh?" The broad-faced humanoid screeches at the screen and withdraws a small sword. "Hobgoblinoids are a race that related to goblinoids that have a very stratified society based on slavery and warfare. Also not to mention a very goblinoid-like build except different skin tones and hobgoblinoids are about 5 ft.-5.8 ft tall usually with muscular bodies," Ansmaro narrates while the hobgoblinoid looks around for a target and looks confused. "Hobgoblinoids are naturally brutish and observe a strict code of society. They also show a great deal of respect to others of higher rungs of society. With that in mind, the number of slaves captured and military exploits a hobgoblinoid accomplishes is a way for upward mobility in their society," the narrator says while the hobgoblinoid pulls out a shield from behind him and marches back and forth in rhythm. "Religion wise, most hobgoblinoids just use the veneration of gods and/or daemons for convenience," Ansmaro says while the hobgoblinoid drops his equipment, pulls out a fetish pouch, and begins to chant. A red, horned daemon appears, screeches at the hobgoblinoid, and chases him off camera. "Hobgoblinoids, despite their militant nature are very industrious and have a strong value for the law, unlike yours truly here," Ansmaro narrates as the hobgoblinoid walks back out on camera all sweaty and huffing and puffing. "Some cities in Varisia, to stem invasions from hobgoblinoids, have offered defeated tribes citizenship into the various united city-states. The hobgoblinoids were and are still valued as law enforcement and labor foremen in Kaer Maga and Riddleport especially," he narrates again as the hobgoblinoid dons a police uniform and smiles maliciously at the camera before it fades to black.

The scene opens with the sun against a partially clouded sky and Silver fang marching up a hillside singing to himself in a very jovial fashion, "I want to be the very best! Like no one ever was! To catch them is my real test-Huh?" He looks at the ruins of Ravengro Prison as the rays of sunshine make his horns and armor shine brilliantly. He arrives at a battered area of wall where it has partially fallen down and a small, shallow pond has formed. "Better prepare," he says to himself and grabs some holy water from his travel pouch on his back. In the time of a few minutes, he prays to Apsu and applies holy water to his weapons. He finishes and looks at the tiny bottle of blue-black fluid and then downs it. He coughs and makes a hearty, "BLEH!" followed by him spitting, "It tastes like how paint smells." He shakes his head and then chucks the bottle away. "Now that that little bit of hell is over, I have to wade through that," Silver Fang gulps and breathes in before trudging to the edge of the pond that breaches the wall of the ruin. He wades out into the water and almost knee deep mud. When Silver Fang passes through the pass in what was a strong wall, he has a horrific vision! He sees fire and brimstone in front of him and hears screams and cries of terror for a split second before he snaps out of it. In surprise, he stops and looks around him with great concentration; however he notices nothing but the village downhill behind him and the courtyard of the prison ahead of him. "What in the nine Hells was that?!" he exclaims while trying to reclaim his bearings. He looks around again and trudges on.

Silver Fang pulls himself from the mud of the pond and looks around the overgrown courtyard. He notices what looks to be a guardhouse, an entrance into the main building that is fused into the west and south walls, a small two story building, and what was a fountain at one time. Then from the mud behind him, four Mudons appear. The nasal-horned saurian skeletons pull themselves from the muck and each of the skeletal beast cry out at the Silvergon. "Undead?! Makes sense," Silver Fang says to himself fearlessly with a hint of mild irritation, while he reaches for his scimitar. "Come and get me!" he cries out to them as they shamble toward him. He has a quick vision of a twenty-sided die rolling the numbers, "5", "3", "10", and "4". Silver Fang regains concentration and opens his mouth-ejecting three, blue fireballs that slam into three of the Mudons. They explode with cries of despair, leaving the last lone Mudon to shamble on toward its target. It does get close enough to charge at Silver Fang with a burst of speed, however Silver Fang sidesteps the charge. Silver fang takes his scimitar and strikes the Mudon from behind-bisecting its skeleton in two. He crushes the still moving head with a swift kick to its skull. He then breathes in heavily and sighs, "First fight? That went well." He then looks around, grabs some plants, and uses them to help clean off some of the mud from the pond from his armor. He looks toward the small two story building and decides to himself, "I'll check that place out next." He sets off toward it and makes sure his weapon chord is attached to his scimitar-just in case he lets go of it accidently, he won't drop it.

Silver Fang within minutes arrives at the door of this badly scorched building. He looks at the door that hangs precariously off of its hinges and then enters the door's portal. He finds himself in what looks like a front office that was ransacked and looks around finding nothing. He does hear what seem to be echoes in the distance of voices, "I rolled a natural 20!" and "There really was nothing in the room, but a few strewn papers that have rotted by now and some worm-eaten furniture." He shakes his head and walks into a hallway. It has a few rooms that are either empty or they seem to be offices that don't scream like anything of use or interest would be in them. Silver Fang looks up a staircase and proceeds up to the second floor. He gets up to the second floor and finds a few offices in similar disarray. He does come into one office that has a large, gaping hole in the ceiling. There he finds what looks to be a log of some sort and attentively studies it. A piece of the ceiling falls down and smashes him against the head! "GAH! That hurt!" he cries and picks up part of the roof that fell in and inspects it, then the floor under him gives way and he falls into the office under this. He crashes and screams with pain, "Youch! This place is really dilapidated!" Then more of the floor above crashes down on him and fills the room with dust and debris. A few minutes later the dust begins to settle and Silver Fang's head breaches the pile of debris with a single, "Ouch." He pulls himself from the pile, pulls a chunk of mortar from one of his horns, and places his hands on himself. "Lay-on hands! Heal!" he says with authority as they glow and he regains his energy and heals his pain escape him. He gets up, shakes himself off, and says, "I should just go into the actual ruins now before something else falls on me." So he sets off outside of the collapsing building and travels a few minutes over to the main gate.

Silver Fang pushes open the gate and finds himself in a large room with three rooms on each side and a main door on the opposite side of the room. After closing the gate behind him, the doors begin to rapidly open and shut repeatedly and horrible cries of despair begin. With no hesitation, various specters appear and hurl themselves at the Silvergon. He shields his face, but the ghosts just pass harmlessly though him and disappear. "That was….weird," he says quietly as he lowers his arms. He cautiously heads to the door on the far side and opens it. It opens to a large hallway that yawns inward to a dreary dark shadow that encompasses the hall. He reaches in his bag for his bull's-eye lantern that looks like a primitive flashlight and switches it on. He sees the beam of light cut through the hallway and walks about thirty-five feet until he gets to a few cells. He inspects a few of them, finding nothing much, until he hears what seems to be a horrible moaning. He turns and sees a ghostly Redking floating behind him holding a chain in one of its massive hands. He groans and throws one end of the chain at Silver Fang, who deftly, pulls his shield to bear-protecting him from the blow, but dropping his light onto the stone floor. He charges the specter; screams, "Power Attack!"; and strikes the apparition with his blade. It makes a cry similar to his companion's "SHHHPARRR!" as his holy-water treated blade does damage to in incorporeal creature. Silver Fang pulls back and gets struck with the chain a second time, causing him to spit a small bit of saliva and blood up. Silver Fang counterattacks and deals a vicious strike upon the undead being that causes it to begin to fade away, but still it persists. It smashes Silver Fang again in the face with its fist, however Silver Fang recovers and deals a last blow against the phantom. This spirit discorporates and disappears, with Silver Fang using lay-on hands on his face. Silver Fang picks up his bullseye lantern and continues his investigation.

He continues to go through the dank corridors and inspects cells for anything out of the ordinary. He passes a few ruins of cells that have what seem to be crude weapons and bones in them. He also passes remains of what seem to be dead guards and he gives the various dead their final rites. Silver Fang then runs into a mist that takes on forms of what seem to be faces in extreme pain and sorrow, and tosses some holy water at it and the mist disappears. "Thankfully, due to game mechanics maybe, I'm immune to fear, "he snickers and continues to march down corridor after corridor, however making note where he has past though with a piece of chalk he picked up in town the previous day. He comes to what was a large dining hall that's roof caved in a long while ago because of fire damage. There's a pool in the middle of the hall of water that seeped through the second floor's roof that takes up quite a bit of space and he muses to himself, "I wonder what the others are up to?" With that he sets off deeper into the ruins of the prison.

Bonesmaher, Ansmaro, King Joe, and Vrondi Piscine are out in a grove outside of the town of Harrowstone. Vrondi nervously says, "So the stranger was seen heading this way this morning, or that's what the Weltway Pub attendant said. Ansmaro's neck and back fins stiffen, "Are you sure someone would leave town and hang out in an old abandoned apple orchard?" King Joe waves his arms and responds in his autoned voice, "It IS near a major road." They mill around until Bonesmasher yelps, "I found tracks!" and points at them with much enthusiasm. Vrondi and the others gather around the trail and notice something. "There are three sets," Ansmaro points out and reaches for his pistol just in case. They notice the three trails go off and disappear some ways off, and Vrondi pulls out a copper piece and focuses on it. "What are YOU doing there, salamander?" Ansmaro asks skeptically and sarcastically. Vrondi chants and the copper piece begins to glow as he mutters between chants, "I'm beginning to sense thoughts, maybe our own, but in a few I'll know how many thinking entities are here." Ansmaro looks at Bonesmasher and teases, "That leaves you out there, buddy." Within a minute Vrondi stops chanting and spouts, "There are others here! At least eight!"

Applause is heard from behind the group and three shadowy figures stand behind them. "So these are the award winners tracking us," says one to the other two. "Indeed," says the central one followed by a malignant chuckle, "Why do you pursue us so?" Ansmaro spits, "By force." Vrondi responds, "Because I was hired to and have a duty to perform." Bonessmasher wails, "For a good fight!" Finally with King Joe finally saying, "For glory and prestige!" Ansmaro looks at Vrondi and whispers, "I thought you said there were eight of these guys." "Shhhpaaarrr!" Bonesmasher shrieks in pain as he swerves around and the group notices two arrows lodged into his midsection. Then from behind some trees come four figures and Ansmaro notes and points to a fifth being behind a tree, "Hey look over there!" The figures turn out, on better inspection, hobgoblinoids. The figures in front of the group laugh and the central one barks, "Deal with these hobgoblinoid mercenaries! We have better things to do than deal with incompetent curs!"

With that, the battle begins! Bonesmasher pulls the arrows from his torso and begins to foam at the mouth with rage. A leading hobgoblinoid with a sword and shield charges Bonesmasher and strikes him deeply with the blade of his sword. "Sphhaaaarrr!" cries Bonesmasher from his small head a cry of pain and anger blasts out. Ansmaro fires his pistol and deals damage to the hobgoblinoid guttersnipe that fired the arrows. The guttersnipe shrugs off the pain, pulls out two arrows, places them in his bow, and takes aim at Vrondi. Ansmaro, all the sudden, cries out in pain, as one of the hobgoblinoids stabs him with two sharp knives in each hand. One of them charges at Ansmaro with a large, serrated blade. Luckily, the hobgoblinoid just grazes Ansmaro with it. Another hobgoblinoid throws off his cloak and reveals a chiseled physique before clapping his hands together, and focusing his internal power-creating a glow around himself. Vrondi casts "MAGIC MISSILE!" and hurls it at the guttersnipe-striking its target and causing it to shriek in pain. King Joe pulls out an alkahest bomb and hurls it at the guttersnipe. It misses the hobgoblinoid, but the explosion covers him in the alkahest acid compound. The hobgobinloid struggles and loses his footing from pain.

The next round sees Bonesmasher grab his pigmon club with both hands, use the rage power "Powerful blow, and use the feat "Power Attack" to give him a massive advantage in damage dealing. He then strikes at the hobgoblinoid leader and deals a significant amount of damage to him; making the creature cry out in extreme pain from the devastating blow. The leader recovers quickly and rises to his feet. He quickly delivers a strike to Bonesmasher's torso and after dealing a deep gash in his hide, the hobgoblinoid bashes Bonesmasher against the head with his shield. Bonesmasher reels in pain and is bleeding from various wounds. The guttersnipe rolls around, trying to get the alkahest acid off of him, while Ansmaro, in pain, drops his pistol and slams his hand into the knife-wielding hobgoblinoid. The hobgoblinoid screams in surprise and horror, and Ansmaro pulls back revealing a punch dagger. The duel-wielding backstabber strikes again at Ansmaro, dealing a moderate wound to the Rayja's back fins that ooze with stab wounds. The hobgoblinoid, that got sneak attacked, tries a feeble attempt to attack Ansmaro and almost crashes onto his face, because of how well Ansmaro swerves to the right. The hobgoblinoid monk-then a voice from outside of this reality cries out as the muscled hobgoblinoid is about to move and the scene comes to a freeze!

"A hobgoblinoid monk? Really?" questions Richard, the crew cut-wearing portly guy at the table, grasping his glass of some carbonated beverage tightly. "Come on, you know a martial-centric, lawful race like them should have some type of hand-to-hand fighter," responds a dark-haired stocky fellow with a grey sweatshirt. "Well what next? My swashbuckler is luckily avoiding being ganked; Steve over there was criticalled on by the leader of these mercs, then whacked upside the head, and stabbed again; while now we have Iron-Fisted Ugly over here," cries Richard again. The horn-rim glasses-wearing GM smiles, "Well that's what happened. Richard, you and Cedric even said you wanted a challenge after last session." He smiles at the green die in hand and clears his throat, "So where were we?" Steve remarks sarcastically about his character, Bonesmasher, from across the table, "Me being a blood sprinkler and the hobgoblinoid monk is where we left off."

With that, the hobgoblinoid monk flings itself at King Joe with one leg forced outward. It deals a powerful kick to King Joe's mid-torso that ends with a spark, a flash, and a loud clang! King Joe almost trembles to the ground; holding onto his midsection with one arm. The hobgoblinoid lands on his feet in a crouching, defensive position. Vrondi pulls out some amber beads from a pouch attached to his belt. He takes one in one hand and chants, making it glow bright with yellow light. He throws one bead at the guttersnipe, it flies through the air with a bright yellow glow, until it strikes the hobgoblinoid bowman, and detonates into an electric blast that causes the hobgoblinoid to fall over dead. King Joe, on the other hand, rights himself and throws a punch into the face of the hobgoblinoid monk. Stunned, the hobgoblinoid grabs King Joe's arm and twists it into a lock.

The next round begins with Bonesmasher's desperate duel. Bonesmasher does another two-handed club attack upon the leader, who blocks it with his shield! The shield flies off the leader's arm and lands on the ground about seven feet from him, bearing the huge dent inflicted by Bonesmasher's club. Bonesmasher uses his elemental bloodline and opens his mouth, spurting chunks of rocky pebbles at the assailant. By this time, the hobgoblinoid leader and Bonesmasher both are looking quite badly beat. The leader, in a sudden rush, turns tail and runs. Bonesmasher gets to make an attack of opportunity that spurs him to make a one-handed club strike against his fleeing target that shatters his bones and makes the hobgoblinoid fall dead in a lifeless mass. Ansmaro opens his mouth and fires his yellow arch blast that connects with its target, then quick draws his rapier, and luckily deals the finishing blow to the inept, serrated-blade knife wielder. The final groan of death comes from the cloaked hobgoblinoid as the other, behind Ansmaro tries to strike again and misses with both blades. The hobgoblinoid monk grasps on tightly to King Joe's arm and strikes King Joe's front torso with his palm-dealing little damage, but still impeding King Joe from fighting back. Vrondi throws an amber globe again at the monk, it detonates and does electrical damage to both the monk and King Joe. The shock forces the monk to let go and regain his bearings. King Joe shakes off the mild damage and strikes at the monk, and misses due to the hobgoblinoid's reflexes.

The next round starts off with Bonesmasher charging at the monk. He misses barely and the monk gets to counterattack with a kick that sends Bonesmasher flat on his rear. Ansmaro uses a quick slash of his rapier and another oral blast to knockback and daze the hobgoblinoid attacker armed with the two knives. The hobgoblinoid monk's fist takes on an eerie, white flamed glow, before trying to strike at the prone Redking. Luckily, Bonesmasher rolls out of the way in time, as the monk strikes the tree behind him and causes the tree to splinter and burn. Vrondi makes a bunch of gestures, "Acid splash!" is cast, and acid pours onto the hobgoblinoid monk. He screams and writhes in anguish and surprise, while King Joe bullrushes him. The thud of the monk's body as his goes prone against the ground is still drowned by the monk's cries.

The final round involves Bonesmasher picking up a large rock and hurling it at the downed monk. "WHACK!" and "YAAARRRGGHHH!" are heard as it connects with its target. The monk attempts to get up, but falls back down to its knees because of the burning acid. Ansmaro luckily delivers a vicious blow to the other hobgoblinoid and twists the blade till the creature gives its final cry. Vrondi uses "Magic Missile" one last time and it strikes the downed monk before Vrondi glows brightly and a thunderbolt springs from his two antlers. The thunderbolt causes the acid to explode and the monk's body stops moving as the smell of smoke and charred meat fill the air.

After the dust settles, everyone stops and breathes, except for King Joe who can't. The group is badly beaten and King Joe opens one of his multi-colored, chest plates and passes around two vials to Ansmaro and Bonesmasher. "Drink them. Vials of cure moderate wounds potion," King Joe says in his mechanized voice. The two drink the clear fluid in the little, green glass bottles heartily. After they finish, their wounds begin to heal visibly. "I don't think you two won't be at 100%, but it's something," King Joe adds. Ansmaro smiles and hands the bottle back to King Joe, "That was really thoughtful. Now I'm not leaking everywhere and riddled with holes." Ansmaro then runs over to the hobgoblinoid bodies.

He rummages around, checking for little bags or pouches. "What are you doing?" questions King Joe. "Just lootin'!" Ansmaro says with a big smile before returning to his kleptomania. "Won't you share?" Vrondi Piscine asks in absolute chagrin. "Finders keepers," barks back Ansmaro. He finds a pouch on the hob that used the two knives and opens it. "Rats! Just twelve silver pieces and four copper!" he exclaims after counting his meager gains. Vrondi checks the pouch on the monk and finds a handful of gold and silver pieces. Ansmaro sees this and bolts over to Vrondi who responds with, "No way. Finders keepers remember?" Ansmaro gives him a glare and the scene fades to black.

The next scene opens up to Ravengro prison's innards where Silver Fang charges at three Mudons and smashes one of the undead creatures in the head with his mace. The creature's skull shatters and its body falls to the ground lifelessly. Silver Fang, again, strikes out and his blow connects with the spine of one of the other two creatures. The bone cracks and shatters, causing the creature's body to fall apart and its still active skull to cry out. Silver Fang slams himself into the other and then uses a power attack to the head to finish off the third. The other head chatters away and Silver Fang reaches for a vial of holy water. He pours the fluid onto the skull and says aloud a prayer for restless spirits. The skull morphs into another saurian skull that of what was a Neosaurus. "Mudon are just restless saurian undead that take on that form after all," Silver Fang says to himself. He grabs up his gear and proceeds through the dank hallway and sees what appears to be a door to what looks like the warden's office.

The door has a gold plaque that has been worn and scarred from years or neglect and from the fire that tore through the prison. Silver Fang investigates the door and turns the knob quietly. It opens to a room that seems like it was the warden's office. It has a massive, mahogany desk that looks to have suffered fire damage and been soaked by water from a hole in the ceiling. He looks around, opening drawers, finding nothing but charred/water-damaged papers. He hears some soft weeping and turns around, only to great shock that a ghost is there in the middle of the room! It appears to be a Shaplay female in a puffy dress who's weeping heavily. "Umm…excuse me? Are you alright?" asks Silver Fang, not having any idea what to say to a ghost of all things. "My husband… They took my husband," the ghost responds in a sorrowful voice with her giant eyes showing what appears to be no emotion. "Who did? Who's your husband?" asks Silver Fang in a very confused tone. "The warden. The three Ultras kidnapped him," she says and an image appears before Silver Fang.

The image of the courtyard of the prison under a half moon appears in front of Silver Fang's eyes. A ghost of a Shaplay in uniform is being dragged out by two Ultras with mystical chains. He writhes in pain, while a cloaked figure stands in front of him. The figure has in hand, the item that was taken that the group has been hunting. It looks like a metallic cone with various odd symbols etched into it. The item glows and reveals a magical binding that goes throughout the prison's walls. The ghost of the warden is put in the middle of a circle made with chalk with great force. He pleads with the Ultras not to do anything to him, or the ghosts will be released. His voice is not even truly heard, just whisps of sound heard by Silver Fang. He begs and pleads as the artifact glows with an eerie, fiendish light. The cloaked figure reveals a blade that glows just like the artifact and stabs the warden in the chest. His ghost dissipates as the binding that surrounds the prison does as well. Horrible wails of sorrow and hatred are overheard as the vision ends.

"The five ghosts that started the riot years ago will lead the others out of the prison and overrun the town!" the ghost of the warden's wife exclaims in horror. Silver Fang, still recovering from the vision rubs his temple, and responds, "How do we stop them?" "The four of the five…I cannot sense them anymore…" she wanders. "Yeah and how do we stop them, lady?" questions Silver Fang again. "A great horror has replaced them… Oh! Check the room two doors down on the left. It's the possession room. The safe on the wall have the five's personal affects," she says before fading away. Her disembodied voice follows by saying, "They are in the dungeon. Down the hallway, at the end, is the door to main atrium that should have the lift to the dungeon below," she says in what seems to be a mere whisper. "Hey wait!" he cries, but it is too late, she has left. "Curses…" he mutters.

He leaves the room and goes off to where she said was the property room. He opens the door to a dank, musty room and flashes his bullseye lantern around. There are shelves that have various boxes, bags, and bottles that adorn the dank room. Silver Fang investigates the shelves and spends a good half hour looking around for useful items. He does find four bottles of cure minor wounds, two bottles of cure moderate wounds, two vials of smelling salts, a vial of holy water, a bag of minor spell components, and a series of alchemical substances. He pockets them so he may better equip his group. He sighs and believes finding what he is looking for possibly hopeless in the piles of crap that litter the shelves, until he spies a wall safe.

Silver Fang inspects it for several minutes, however then he realized he'd never be able to figure out the combination on the safe. He resorts to one thing he knows will work-blunt force trauma! He continually assails the safe's metal façade with his mace, thus making many dents. He takes a breather after a few minutes and resumes till the safe breaks open and he investigates what's inside. He finds a rusty old flute, a small silver hammer, a rusty hand-axe, a charm bracelet with various religious symbols on it, a spellbook, and a medal of some sort that has been worn beyond recognition. He takes them, believing that they will aid in the battle against the undead. He sets off out of the room to the location of the dungeon entrance.

He arrives at the location in a main atrium that is littered with a mix of crude weapons and mangled, burned weapons with armor that the guards would have used and remains. He inspects a lift that is horribly damaged, after meandering through the remains of prisoners and guards. "Curses! It is totally broke," he exclaims to himself and feels a coldness from behind him. He turns and a ghost of a Guts guard stands behind him. "I'm so sad. I died here and it's so lonely," he says to Silver Fang in a sorrowful, defeated tone. "I'm sorry. I really am. I'll put you at rest, alright?" Silver Fang carefully says to the apparition. It nods solemnly and Silver Fang grasps his holy symbol of Apsu and prays for the restless soul. It takes about a minute, doing the right prayer and making the right gestures. The soul smiles and fades away and then Silver Fang sighs, "Alright now to the big time stuff." He draws closer to the edge of the aperture that the lift occupied once and flashes his light down the shaft. He sees the light pierce the murky darkness, but it's a good thirty foot drop to a stone floor below. "I'm really not going to be able to get down there without help," he mutters to himself and has an idea. He starts to mutter a few magic words and gestures a bit to activate the spell, "Sense Evil." The spell takes effect and he feels evil vaguely around him, however down in the dungeon it feels excessively powerful. "Crap! It just radiates with evil down there," he says to himself and then thinks aloud, "I better turn back so I can plan the next course of action."

He turns back and with little problem he exits the building. He wades again through the water at the ruined wall and once again gets covered in mud and grime, before heading back to the Broken Tusk Inn, before the scene shifts to black.

A white screen with big green, bold letters that read, "MONSTER FACTS" and a skeletal creature wanders on to screen in a slow, jerky motion. Above it appears the heading "MUDON" in big, red letters. It slowly tilts its head upwards to look at the type and seems to be stuck in place. Vrondi Piscine narrates and starts off with, "Mudons are a lesser undead type that are quite common. They are slow, dull-witted, and are rather placid compared to most undead." The Mudon lowers its head and shambles about. "The origin of a Mudon is as follows," as Vrondi says this, the Mudon wanders off screen and three saurian kaiju arrive on screen: a Salamandora, a Silvergon, and a Gomora. "When some members of the saurian group die, their souls pass on to the hereafter, but sometimes residue from the spirit still persists," Vrondi points out as the three fall onto their backs, have "X's" for eyes before they shift into skeletons, and have angelic forms of themselves with halos that rise up from their old bodies. "What it seems is that saurians have a common lineage so that this form of undead only arises from their dead and morphs the skeleton into a skeletal, allosauroid form with a single nasal horn," the magic-using narrator says as the skeletons morph into horned Mudon skeletons before they get back up and start to hobble around. "Usually this is when the subject has died isolated and alone, or under harsh conditions," Vrondi says while the Mudons wander aimlessly about on the screen. "Despite low intelligence that usually ranks between 6 to 9, in groups they are a threat. The main weapon of a Mudon is their nasal horn. When they charge, not only does the horn do damage it gets an extra four-sided die of damage because of the negative force, that animates them, permeates their bones and is focused through it," Vrondi says as the Mudons begin to charge into each other headfirst. "Mudon are products of their environment, so that being said, if they are destroyed without the use of silver, divine magic, or holy water they will reform in four days and wander about again. Defeating one and performing a last rites ritual also may break the cycle as well," Vrondi adds as one Mudon shatters and the others stand by, one even checking a pocket watch that he pulls out from behind him, and suddenly it reassembles itself. "Blunt force trauma is the best way to deal with said creatures besides the methods mentioned before, even though it's just a short term solution," Vrondi says while the Mudons continue to butt heads. "Well, not much else is there to say. Kind of bland undead if you ask me," Vrondi voices his opinion before a crash is heard in the background. "BONESMASHER'S INT IS 9! Magic salamander think Bonesmasher is STUPID?!" a voice is heard that betrays its identity. "No! No! My friend, they are just undead, they are naturally kind of vacant," Vrondi says in a frightened tone. "So you no think Bonesmasher is stupid?" the Redking asks in a gruff tone, while still off screen as is Vrondi while the Mudons stop and seem like they are listening in. "No! Of course not," Vrondi responds and Bonesmasher follows up with, "Okay. I'll just go now." Vrondi audibly breathes a sigh of relief and says to himself, "Wow that was close." A sigh of relief is heard as the screen fades to black.

Hours later, back at the inn, the various part members have their dinner and take a few potions to heal their wounds, except King Joe who gets a hammer and a curious multi-tool to fix damage to his form. Silver Fang came back after the rest did and returned to his room to rest up, planning to talk to the group in the morning. Before bed, he drank some hot tea and ordered fresh bread and some meat sent to his room. The falls asleep at what seems to be 8:30pm and everything fades to black.

With a flash from across the street, Silver Fang wakes up. He sluggishly hobbles over to the window to peer out and sees flames rising from one of the shops on the other side of the road. He snaps out of his funk, quickly equips himself for battle, and bolts out the door, even though his armor weighs him down considerably. He passes by a wall clock in the hall, noticing it is a few minutes after eleven o' clock as he charges on. Ansmaro meets him on the bottom floor with Vrondi Piscine. "What's going on?!" Ansmaro asks in a panicked tone. "I don't know, but we have to react!" shouts Silver Fang and with that he crashes through the door.

Outside the night air is heated by the fire across the street. A shop that sells cheeses, salted meats, wines, and various other things is burning brightly as the trio enters onto the street. King Joe follows out the door about forty seconds after. "Where's Bonesmasher?" asks Vrondi frantically and King Joe merely shrugs. Then with a "THUD!" Bonesmasher crashes behind them and they all take notice. "You fell out from the window?!" Ansmaro yelps. "No. Decided to jump out, but I lack aerodynamicness," Bonesmasher says as he gets up on his feet and rubs his head. They all are standing outside in the dark of night as the flames from the burning building cause the shadows of darkness to retreat. In front of them and before the building three figures appear-three ghosts of a Guts with a mace; a Daigerun whose bloated, ghostly body dwarfs the other two ghosts while its jaws from its flat, ray-like head drip with ectoplasm saliva; and an insectoid Baltan that is glad in ghostly hide armor.

"GHOSTS?!" Vrondi Piscine screeches in horror as the triad of ghosts draws closer. Silver Fang gives a cry and uses "Smite Evil" upon the Daigerun and withdraws his scimitar. Bonesmasher takes off and tries to club the Guts, however he passes right through the specter. The Guts ghost does smack Bonesmasher with the mace, knocking him out cold. King Joe tries using a spark blast from his face knobs, and does seem to harm the Baltan a bit. Vrondi Piscine generates a lightning bolt that strikes the Baltan ghost, doing a bit more damage, however it still rises to its ghostly feet. Ansmaro looks around and is puzzled at what to do and then sees Silver Fang take another shot at the Daigerun who (because he wasn't watching Silver Fang much) has its ghastly maw latched onto Silver Fang's forearm. The blade pops through the translucent head of the Daigerun; the foul, ghostly creature looks surprised; and begins to discorporate. The Guts draws closer to an unconscious Bonesmasher with his mace. Silver Fang drops his weapon, slaps his hands together, and kneels all of the sudden. "Channel positive energy!" he shouts as loud as possible and a wave of light erupts from his position. The two remaining ghosts are caught in the light and disappear He gets up and retrieves his weapon, "So that's that." Ansmaro looks at him and shouts, "Ghosts? Where did they come from?!" Silver Fang looks at the group and dryly says, "Long story, rather save it for morning." Before Silver Fang can go back into the inn, a gaggle of constables and firefighters arrive on the scene. The town's sheriff, a Salamandora, comes onto the scene and says in a deep, raspy voice, "I seen what you did back there, Silvergon. Tomorrow I want you in my office at 10 am or I'll send someone to bring you in." Silver Fang looks at him and facepalms, "All right." Scene fades to black.

The next morning the group is in a waiting room to see the sheriff. "I can't believe that there is an army of ghosts about to leave the prison and besiege this town," Vrondi says in a tone that still reflects his surprise on the entire situation. Earlier, Silver Fang told the entire group of what was about to happen and what did happen in the ruins of the prison. King Joe autones away, "I have met undead before. My alkahest bombs are designed to combat corporal undead, but not ghosts." Vrondi starts to levitate all the sudden and begins to chant quietly and the rest of the group note this. "Cut that out!" snaps Silver Fang as he grabs Vrondi's tail and forces him back down into his seat. "Sorry that spellbook you gave me…does…THINGS," he adds in an embarrassed tone. A Shaplay in office worker clothes calls to the group, "The Sheriff shall see you now." They all get up and Silver Fang looks at them and mutters, "Don't screw this up." Then the scene cuts away.

Next scene opens up to the Sheriff sitting at his desk and rubbing the top of his head under his crest and groaning, "Really? That ghost attack was because cultists removed the ghost of the warden that keeps the other ghosts trapped in Ravengro Prison?" Silver Fang nods, "Essentially, yes." "So if something is not done soon, Harrowstone will be turn into Spook Central?" he questions again and looks at the group with mild antipathy. "Right. You know mass hysteria, the dead rising from the grave, and dogs and cats living together," quips Ansmaro. "I really don't even want to know how he got in your group," growls the Sheriff, "However if you can go and mix this problem, Harrowstone would be in your debt." Ansmaro scratches his chin and his eyes narrow, "You don't say-UMF!" before getting silenced by a smack against his back by an irate Silvergon templar. "Do you know what the names of the leaders of the riot that caused the prison to catch fire were?" questions the Sheriff dryly. They all shake their heads and the Sheriff clears his throat and says, "The Illsmarsh Piper, Farther Charlatan, The Mosswater Marauder, The Lopper, and the Splatter Saur." "Well you should be off and plan what you are going to do," continues the Sheriff and the scene shifts again back to the inn right before he shouts, "That means get a' movin'!".

The group is sitting at a table and they throw back ideas for what they should do. "Well, we could all set off tomorrow and try to get into the dungeon," says Vrondi Piscine very confidently. "How about the lift?" questions Ansmaro. "I can fix it, possibly," King Joe autounes in. "But we'll need supplies against ghosts, since most of us aren't equipped for them," Silver Fang adds with reason. "I can go to a church of Pharasma and get some holy water and possibly acquire ghost capture bottles, "Vrondi says, and then the group looks at him and in unison, "That's a great idea!" "I can use the substances you imparted to me earlier today and see what I can produce, "says King Joe to Silver Fang. "Agreed, and I do believe setting off tomorrow and having us take shifts sleeping and watching outside tonight so we don't have a repeat of last night is a good course of action," Silver Fang declares and the rest nod. "So another montage?" asks Ansmaro and Silver Fang cries, "YES!" with much enthusiasm.

The montage starts with Vrondi going into a church with a giant spiral symbol on it and coming out with a big bag of stuff and then the next frame shows Ansmaro practicing with his rapier before screen slides off camera and is replaced by another frame. This time with Silver Fang sitting and meditating before getting up and beginning to get his armaments. Then the screen flips over to the room of King Joe being kept lit with a multitude of candles and him mixing various chemicals and substances together while Thomas Dolby's "_She Blinded Me with Science_" plays in the background. He grabs a jar from the inside of his open chest panel and mixes the slimy, grey contents with a yellowish, translucent fluid in a larger beaker. The next frame shows Bonesmasher perched on one of the ledges of the inn they are at, watching the townscape in the night for supernatural phenomenon. The scene then melts away to the next morning with the group outside of the prison.

"Here we are," Silver Fang says to the group as they stand at the open gouge in the wall of the prison. Ansmaro looks at the muddy water and takes a walk backwards a few feet, then takes off running toward the water, and then finally launches himself with his fins elongating and thus turning himself into a living hang-glider. He lands on the other side, turns, and waves to the group, "Hey! That was pretty easy! Come on guys!" Silver Fang begins to wade into the water and mutters, "I hate that guy so much." King Joe actually hovers over the water and Silver Fang grumbles. Vrondi is able to walk over the water due to his water affinity and Silver Fang snarls. Bonesmasher, like him, wades through the water, but doesn't seem to care about the mud or grime. They go toward the main gate of the prison and it yawns eerily in front of them (mostly because Silver Fang didn't shut it after he left). "The best course of action to get to where we are supposed to go-," begins Silver Fang before getting interrupted by Bonesmasher, who pushes Silver Fang to the side and the yellowish, muscle-bound kaiju cries, "MONTAGE!" "NOT YET!" screams Silver Fang in rage, "We can after I do one thing." Silver Fang enters the first room and like the first time and the doors begin to slam repeatedly and ghosts fly out at him. He quickly kneels and cries, "Channel positive energy!" and a wave of light emits from him, causing the ghosts to disappear. He smiles and nods to Bonesmasher.

Yet again, another montage begins, this time showing them move at a sped-up pace through the dank hallways. Next off five Mudons challenge the group and Bonesmasher charges them with club in hand. He uses both hands to bring the club crashing down upon one and shattering it. The others draw near and Bonesmasher swings the club's end into one of the Mudon's chests and breaks the undead thing into splinters. Another Mudon barely misses him and Bonesmasher drops his club, trying to avoid the creature. He slams it in the head with both fists at once, shattering its skull. Another charges at him and he grabs it head-on! He swings it into the other Mudon and both shatter into a pile of bones! Bonesmasher sits in the pile and smiles at the group and the next scene pops up. Next scene shows Ansmaro running from a bunch of ghost guards. The next frame shows Silver Fang still trying to clean the mud off his armor from crossing through the pond to get on the prison's grounds and grumblings. Finally the montage ends with King Joe using an alkahest bomb to deal with a Mudon who is chasing him. The explosion damages the undead saurian and the alchemical fluid also finishes the job by dissolving it.

The group eventually comes to the hole in the floor that is the opening to the dungeon. They all gather around it with their various lights like Bonesmasher's alchemical torch, King Joe's lights, and Ansmaro…who apparently has the ability to see in the dark and doesn't need a light. He looks at the front of the screen, "Dark vision. It's a Rayja thing." "That's a long way down," notes Vrondi as he uses his senses to determine his surrounding, since he is indeed blind. "How do you know that?" asks Ansmaro curiously. "Electrical perception, don't ask really it'd only confuse you," responds Vrondi as King Joe opens his chest compartments and grabs various tools. "I'll handle this," he autounes and sets to fixing the lift. For an hour King Joe works hard, and the rest of the group ends up playing two games of cards, which Ansmaro suspiciously wins both.

All of the sudden, "It can't be fixed," is heard from King Joe. The group reacts in astonishment and horror, "What?!" "I can fly down there with someone," he says in his mechanical voice, "It would be easier." Ansmaro scoffs, "I can go down there myself, see!" With that he spreads out his fins, jumps into the pit, and glides down, after which he yells back up, "See? Easy." King Joe grabs Vrondi and levitates off the ground and descends into the pit and comes back up within minutes-much to the chagrin of the sorcerer, "See. I can do this." He grabs hold of Silver Fang and starts to wobble as the robot kaiju takes off and again and descends into the shaft. Silver Fang is let go of on the floor and King Joe ascends to grab Bonesmasher. Silver Fag directs his bullseye lantern down the hallway on the left, "I think we should explore this first." Before hearing Bonesmasher and King Joe land with a "CLANG!" "So heavy…" grumbles King Joe. Before they head to the first cell block they hear eerie piping.

The group looks around and they see a ghostly flute hover in mid air. It's incorporeal and just hovers, playing its eerie melody that chills each and every one of them-well not King Joe, but whatever. Silver Fang uses his "Smite Evil" power on the floating flute and it stops for a few seconds, before starting again. Silver Fang notices in the dim light that Vrondi Piscine and Bonesmasher are completely paralyzed and seem to be in a trance. "What's wrong with you two?!" he cries in panic. "Remember the flute? Give it to me!" Ansmaro orders Silver Fang. The Silvergon rummages through his bag and delivers the flue to the Rayja that stand before him. Ansmaro begins to play a tune on the flute and the other ghostly one stops and starts to vibrate violently. Silver Fang reaches for a little item that looks like a fancy bottle in one of his belt pouches and opens it toward the phantasmal flute. The flute turns into a mist, is sucked into the bottle, and Silver Fang shuts it with a sigh of relief. "So ghost traps DO work, "Silver fang muses and then places it inside the pouch again, and adds, "Where did you learn to play?" Ansmaro smirks, "Gotta entertain yourself somehow on long voyages. Lemme guess that was the Illsmarsh Piper we took down?" Then Ansmaro slaps Vrondi back to his senses with an "Oooow!" escaping Vrondi's mouth. The group checks themselves and they head into the first cell block.

The group enters the cell block and notes its surroundings. The cell block is a two-floored giant room about two hundred ft long and one hundred feet wide. The sources of light they wield seem to just cut pieces out of the oppressive darkness of this area. The smell of decay is rife in the area and skeletons and other debris are strewn around wantonly. King Joe autotunes abruptly, "Bonesmasher wait!" The Redking stops and asks, "Why metal Joe tell Bonesmasher to stop?" "Look!" points King Joe to an opened bear trap. "They ghosts probably have placed traps all over in a conspiracy to indirectly kill us all," Vrondi stammers. "Get a hold of yourself, salamander!" responds Silver Fang, "We can just be very careful." He waves around his bullseye lantern as he climbs the stairs. After, fifteen minutes, it is determined this cell block is abandoned or the ghosts in it are not in a fighting mood. As they leave, this cellblock, they do note that there are a few other traps lined up, and Bonesmasher's survival skills note that the dust there seems only recently disturbed.

The next cellblock is defiantly in worse shape. The roof is partially caved into the common area in the middle of the block, leaving a pile of rubble about seven feet high and twenty feet wide in it. There is also part of one tier on the far end of the cell block from the entrance giving way to ruined top floor. Upon entering the cell block, the air feels heavy and which prompts Silver Fang to concentrate and cast the spell, "Sense Evil." Within seconds he is struck by a foul presence which makes him cry out, "Dear sweet Apsu!" In a few moments afterward, over the rubble, a bizarre two-coned object appears floating in midair. Silver Fang squints and all the sudden he hears faintly in his brain, "I got a natural 20 on a religion roll." It merely confuses him about where these faint voices are coming from or what they mean, however he then snaps back and knows what the object is! The object manifests two copies of itself side by side as the group gasps in fear/astonishment. "It's a Zombayu!" cries Silver Fang as he draws his mace, and continues, "It's an undead thing created when angry souls merge. The ritual that involved the warden's ghost probably fused the lead ghosts into one entity!" Bonesmasher responds inquisitively, "Does Silver Fang believe a "MONSTER FACTS" is needed for this one?" "NO!" yells the enraged templar and then he releases his triad of blue fire balls that strike each target. Two of the copies disappear and one in the center turns and reveals a great, blue, pupil-less eye and a giant mouth on its side. It lands and its body takes on a tent-like shape with a huge maw filled with teeth and huge, cumbersome hands.

The creature chortles aloud in a disturbingly heavy voice as it faces the group. The party readies themselves for combat and the first strike goes to Ansmaro. Ansmaro deftly takes a shot at the creature. The munition, that he treated with holy water by the way, pierces the undead thing's bulky hide to deal some damage, but not much. The creature looks at the group and strikes Bonesmasher with three beams that hit both legs and the arm he wields his club with. The appendages glow and begin to move by themselves, against Bonesmasher's will. "What? Arm and legs get tired of Bonesmasher?! Bonesmasher will bite you!" cries the confused knucklehead. The Zombayu blasts Ansmaro with a beam that knocks him off his feet and then the scene cuts to the gaming table where the GM and his horn rimmed glasses stare back at the stocky guy named Richard.

"Richard, make a fortitude save," the Game Master says dryly. The other player rolls a twenty-sided die and calculates his bonus, before saying sadly, "12" The GM shakes his head, "Lose 3 CON and your HP is lowered by 6." "What?!" he shouts. The GM nods, "Just try to make your FORT save the next time, or the one after, or your character dies of Con drain." Richard is aghast and the GM smiles, "Good luck!" before thinking to himself, "Man, this die I'm rolling is TOO good." He thinks this while holding the green, twenty-sided die.

King Joe throwing an alkahest bomb at the undead thing is the first thing seen after the cutscene. It detonates when in contact with the Zombayu's leathery skin and does noticeable damage, even though not much. The undead thing cries aloud in a hollow, sorrowful cry and gives the robot a gaze that could kill. Bonesmasher, whose limbs are under the Zombayu's control, charges at Silver Fang and strikes him with his club-almost causing Silver Fang to lose his balance! He rights himself through the pain that reverberates through his bones, "Fight that thing's control!" Bonesmasher just responds in a frantic manner, "I can't!" Vrondi chants in a focused manner as mist and vapor form around him. Then in a quick burst of force, a blast of concentrated water splashes the frumpy, cyclopean creature. Silver Fang, after regaining his balance, uses "SMITE EVIL" upon the Zombayu-this causes the creature to look queasy and in pain. Silver Fang cries "POWER ATTACK" and slashes the Zombayu deeply with his already-drawn scimitar. The cut is deep and open wounds crease across the undead thing's front and bleed with glowing miasmic protoplasm.

The Zombayu is obviously hurt after the attack and cries with pain and fury. Ansmaro tries to fight off the effects of the beam, but fails. A familiar player voice is heard off camera, "CRAP!" However, Ansmaro does reload and take shot again, but misses the targeted horror. Kinge Joe fires an electric spark at the Zombayu, dealing minimum damage, as the alkahest fluid still eats away at the undead beast's pseudo flesh. Bonesmasher beans Silver Fang against the head, cracking a few of the Silvergon's teeth and giving him a jarring, aching pain that shoots through his head and spine. Vrondi fires a "Magic Missile" at the Zombayu, although mildly grazing the creature. The Zombayu fires a powerful beam at Vrondi, just like the one that struck Ansmaro. It connects with Vrondi, knocking him on his backside. However unlike Ansmaro, he is able to save against the effects. Silver Fang's world spins like a merry-go-round of pain, however he does take his scimitar with both hands and deals another severe blow to the horror that torments his group. The Zombayu recoils and cries in sheer horror and pain. Before the next turn, it summons three copies of itself to confuse the group.

Ansmaro finally saves from the effects of the Zombayu's ray, fires one more shot at the quartet of Zombayus, and strikes one that fades away on contact with that shot he fired. Ansmaro grumbles and passes out, due to exhaustion. One of the Zombayus crashes into Bonesmasher! It strikes him with great force and hurls him across the room. "Huuuurrrrkk! Bonesmasher thinks Bonesmasher has discovered the real one," he grumbles as he gets back on its feet. However, the Zombayu runs back into the group and they shift around, hiding the real Zombayu once again. King Joe reaches inside a pouch along his belt and grabs and primes a grenade. He throws it at the group of Zombayus and it explodes before striking an actual target, however metal pellets from the blast reveal the real Zombayu by spreading the ball bearings everywhere-forcing the imposters to disappear. The residual alkahest burns the Zombayu dealing the little damage to the creature as it still could. Bonesmasher charges the undead terror and slips on the wet stone (leaky roof much?) beneath his feet and crashes into the rubble of the center of the room. Vrondi strikes the Zombayu with a lightning bolt from his horns and Silver Fang takes advantage of the creature's pain. Silver Fang delivers the final blow to the creature by hacking it in half with his scimitar! The Zombayu gives a vile shriek and dissolves into a mist that Silver Fang quickly catches in the ghost trapping bottle. "Whew! Now that THAT is finally done," he mutters and then the ghost of the warden's wife appears! "You have avenged my husband and defeated the head of the spectral invasion. You are heroes," the bug-eyed ghost says to the group and delivers them a "Thank You," before fading away. Silver Fang looks at Ansmaro on the ground and says to the group, "We better grab him and get out of here." The scene fades to black….

Credits roll and on a side screen a scene appears that says in bold letters "HISTORY OF NUMERIA AND THE TECHNIC LEAGUE." King Joe narrates, "About two thousand years ago, in the River Kingdoms region of Avistan a massive object fell from the sky." The scene shows a flaming object crash into a windswept plain near a river. The flames fade and debris is everywhere, but a metal tower stands alone in the debris field. "Many believe it was a vessel from the stars. When it came down, it made large gashes in the land, but it came down in pieces and spread its influence all over what would be Numeria," the narrator autotunes away. Then the landscape shows a rapid sun setting/rising, dirt and plants collecting over the wreckage, and the river changes course several times and King Joe adds, "Centuries pass and about 1500 years ago, the first Technics are born from the Silver Mount." With that small mechanized organisms crawl around the area that look like spiders and other odd, little things. "About 1300 years ago, these primitive Technics have a fraction of them that become intelligent," the narrator says when a few robot-like creatures appear on the horizon. "These Technics eventually start building the city of Starfall near the Silver Mount, Torch in the center of the country, and Chesed in the northeast. They create the Technic League to represent them in Starfall and gave power to the first King Joe, my great grandfather," he narrates as a table sided with flags with gears imprinted on them is seen with various robots on each side and at the head of the table is a robot that looks like him. "The first three centuries were rocky and new Technics were being birthed from the power that surged from the Silver Mount at two specific times of the year. The city of Starfall expanded and found, 800 years ago, the birthing pods. These metal pods are connected to a giant terminal that eats scrap metal and after three months from these oblong pods, new Technics pop out. These were discovered underneath moss and dirt that was cleared for the southern portion of the city," he says as the screen shows a Crazygon pop out of one of these elongated pods waving its long arms around. "Generations followed and new kings took over, new explorations into the Silver Mount revealed its honeycombed nature, from the discoveries from it and elsewhere alchemy grew," as scenes of labs with various chemicals in containers come into view. "However, about 700 years ago, King Joe Red, my grandfather, united the various barbarian tribes within the nation and gave them some representation at the Technic league," he says as a red King Joe gives a bag of gold to what appears to be a scarred-up Gomora barbarian with furs and animal teeth necklaces. "Then we went outside and made contact with other nations. The Technic League's Numeria has prospered since then through trade of alchemical and armament goods outward and raw materials inward. Even during the civil war caused by a Technic named Deathfacer and his turncoat Imperializers and Legionoid forces, we were at a great profit," he says as a shadowy figure in a flaming background stands with various Legionoid robots stand in the foreground. He finally ends with, "Even with the World Wound vomiting out its horros in the north and Ustalav with its undead horrors in the west, Numeria stands firm."


End file.
